MartinWales Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 Phil Greaves' Rhydyclafdy is now retired from the exhibition circuit, having spoken with him at the recent Stafford show. I understand that all future efforts will be aimed at getting his next layout 'Ellesmere' onto the circuit a.s.a.p. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJS1977 Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 There's also my own on-off Aberystwyth (SG) & Rheidol Valley project - currently still in the process of rebuilding after my house move last year (will try to get back into it once next week's exhibition is out of the way). Still a little way off being operable again as the new location requires a U-bend to be incorporated into the main lines to join the fiddle yard back on, and also in need of a rewire. However the idea of "virtually" operating it in conjunction with other layouts is something I've often pondered. I have a Visual Basic program that enables me to receive bell codes to/from Llanbadarn 'box in accordance with a timetable - ultimately to become a sort of "Digital Crispin" with the help of some MERG kits. Unfortunately I don't know enough about web programming to be able to adapt it to send the "rings" over the 'net, but I'm sure there must be a way of doing it! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJS1977 Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 I seem to remember a model of Wellington (not strictly on the Cambrian, but on the route of the CCE) in RM about 20 years ago - I wonder if it's still around? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MartinWales Posted February 14, 2015 Share Posted February 14, 2015 More like 25 years ago!-RM October 1990. also featured in MRJ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike morley Posted March 5, 2015 Share Posted March 5, 2015 This is Pentrefan, which is described in exhibition programmes as "an afterthought on a byway to nowhere". Set somewhere in Mid-Wales at the Grouping, it was originally based on a cross between Aberangell (the only intermediate station of any consequence on the Dinas Mawddwy branch) and Fronfraith Mill in the heart of the Mule gorge on the Kerry branch. As tends to happen, the layout evolved as it was built and the Fronfraith influences have all but disappeared, but I'd like to think it is still recognisably typical of the kind of former-tramway/destitute minor-railway that sheltered beneath the Cambrian umbrella. The pictures were taken by co-operator and photographer extraordinaire Mike Brough. The layout won't be exhibited very often because I have to work Saturdays, but at the moment it's got a provisional booking for ExpoEM and a firm booking for Wycrail, both in 2016. 15 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJS1977 Posted March 5, 2015 Share Posted March 5, 2015 The layout won't be exhibited very often because I have to work Saturdays, but at the moment it's got a provisional booking for ExpoEM and a firm booking for Wycrail, both in 2016. Sounds like you're somewhere on my "patch" - if 20/2/2016 happens to be a non-working Saturday for you,PM me your details! Richard Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Donw Posted March 6, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 6, 2015 Is there a thread Mike? I would like to see more. Don Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike morley Posted March 6, 2015 Share Posted March 6, 2015 Thank you all for your extremely kind words! Pentrefan is my first attempt at an exhibition layout and ignorance lead me to setting such a tight deadline I was working on it until midnight then getting up at 4am to resume work on it nearly every night for three months leading up to its first show! Even so, it still went out first time smelling strongly of fresh paint, with areas of wet glue everywhere and the scenery along the front barely sketched in. I didn't even get to take many pictures during the construction stage and didn't have anything like enough time to set up a thread These pictures were all taken by me at that first show (Milton Keynes, February last year). The three pictures by Mike Brough that I posted above were taken nine months later at Hemel Hempstead. This first one makes an interesting comparison with the middle one of Mike's trio. The last remnant of Fronfraith lingers around the passenger platform, combined with a hint of Mallwyd from the Dinas Mawddwy branch. The mill building from Fronfraith would have been filling the background of this shot, had my original intentions panned out. However, Fronfraith Mill is quite big, does not lend itself too well to being reduced in size and, in any case, is not very modellogenic. Plan B, therefore, was to use a smaller version of the old brewery from Welshpool, combined with one of the bridges from the Talyllyn (Cynfal, I think). The first attempt was of a building about half the size of the original brewery, but it was still too big and overwhelmed that end of the layout Cutting it down to a third of the original size made it better but not good, and by the time I'd reduced it to a quarter not only were the proportions getting upset but it was also starting to look more like the kind of thing you'd find in a Pennine mill-town! Both building and bridge were scrapped and replaced. The bridge that now adorns the layout is based on those found on the Tanat Valley. The brewery building has been replaced with one based on an agricultural prototype from Llanddewi Brefi and moved down the layout to the goods bank. The purpose of this building has always been a bit vague but in the last few days I've decided it will become one of the many outposts of the Old Radnor Trading Company. When I add the signage I'll do something about the buildings distinct list to starboard! This is the only other structure of any consequence on the layout and is entirely generic, being based very loosely on various prototypes found all over mid and north Wales (and one from a Manx lead mine!) It represents a run-down slab mill whose main role now is to hide the sector plate behind it and act as an exchange siding between the quarry locos bringing laden slate trains down the valley and main-line locos bringing empties up the valley. Pentrefan is the smallest and simplest layout I've ever built but that didn't stop it being an extremely steep learning curve. Despite that, it has behaved itself extremely well on both its outings so far. If only I could say the same about my loco stud . . . 10 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Donw Posted March 6, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 6, 2015 A lot of us end up working all hours to finish a layout off. I can remember having to stop working on the layout about 5am because I had to load up and drive to the exhibition . It does look very good. Don Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
5050 Posted March 6, 2015 Share Posted March 6, 2015 I really like that. Fronfraith is a location that I've thought would make a nice small layout. I take it you operate as a passing station with a fiddle yard each end? Where does the front siding go to? How about making the building an outpost of Pryce Jones's? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike morley Posted March 6, 2015 Share Posted March 6, 2015 I was quite taken with the idea of Fronfraith as a layout location in its own right until I explored the area and realised that Captain's Pitch Bridge and Middle Mill, a quarter of a mile downstream, is much, much better. The bridge is immeasurably more modellogenic, the relationship between railway and river is both complex and interesting and the mill is not only much grander, it's also twice the size so justifies far more traffic. I've got quite a few pictures from my assorted visits but the area is now so overgrown that even at this time of year, when there are no leaves on the trees, it is quite difficult to work out what you are looking at. This is Middle Mill. I took the picture last July, when everything was obviously in full leaf, but it gives you an idea of what I mean. With regard to Pentrefan, it is a through station, but rather than having a fiddle yard at each end it uses the Iain Rice idea of a fiddle yard only at one end with a sector plate serving a hidden return line back to the fiddle yard at the other end. I thought it was a brilliant idea when I first read about it and there is a thread or two on RMweb where I sang its praises from the rooftops, but having lived with it for a year or so, well, shall we just say I shan't be repeating the exercise? The siding at the front of the layout was originally intended to be a mineral line that climbed the valley side to a quarry further downstream. The theory was that the slate shed that is now in front of the sector plate at one end of the layout was originally intended to be at the other end of the layout with the turntable fiddleyard rotating beneath it. The problem was that to get high enough to clear the turntable fiddleyard the line needed to climb at 1-in-33 from the moment it left the sector plate, and when I started the layout I'd only got one loco capable of hauling a train of loaded whitemetal wagons up that kind of gradient. Inevitably, they can all manage it now with such ease that the firemen all lean on the side of their cabs, enjoying a lazy fag and a cuppa! Anyway, as a result, the gradient now starts at 1-in-44 from the sector plate then steepens to 1-in-33. This means it won't clear the turntable fiddleyard so the line now terminates at the end of the scenic boards and is assumed to be a line to an abandoned quarry that remains in use to act as a headshunt serving the exchange siding in front of the slab shed. All that waffle might make more sense if I include a track-plan 6 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
5050 Posted March 6, 2015 Share Posted March 6, 2015 Thanks, it all makes sense now! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Penlan Posted March 12, 2015 Share Posted March 12, 2015 Mike Morley, is that a Dart Castings Donkey with the cart in one of the photo's by Mike Brough - Your post #31 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Isambard Kingdom Brunel Posted March 12, 2015 Share Posted March 12, 2015 exhibition 2014 013.jpg Pentrefan is the smallest and simplest layout I've ever built but that didn't stop it being an extremely steep learning curve. Despite that, it has behaved itself extremely well on both its outings so far. If only I could say the same about my loco stud . . . Are the 2 Plank drop side Cambrian Wagons the 51L white metal kits? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike morley Posted March 13, 2015 Share Posted March 13, 2015 Penlan The donkey is indeed from Dart Castings (not knitted!) with a harness made from thin strips of insulating tape. No one makes 4mm scale donkey carts so it's hitched to an etched brass HO farm tip cart from the Shirescenes range that came with the most appalling instructions I've ever met. IKB The wagons are all variations on the 51L kit. I must have close to a dozen now, in umpteen different guises ranging from as-per-instructions dropsides through to fixed-side conversions with GWR axleboxes and buffers. I've got one with early, curved V hangers and brake levers. Another one has got a duplex brake. I did try the Cambrian Models plastic kits when they first came out and thought the bodies were very nicely moulded, but I was not so impressed with the underframes so reverted to the 51L cast kits. 90% of my rolling-stock is metal (Mostly whitemetal with a few etched) and I found that a lightweight plastic wagon in a train-load of heavyweight metal wagons can cause derailments. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Penlan Posted March 13, 2015 Share Posted March 13, 2015 ....... I thought it was a brilliant idea when I first read about it and there is a thread or two on RMweb where I sang its praises from the rooftops, but having lived with it for a year or so, well, shall we just say I shan't be repeating the exercise? I'm minded of advise often sought about various layout ideas for exhibitions, to which I normally reply along the lines of .... ".. might be good for an hour, perhaps two, but have you tried operating it for 6 hours continuously, and things MUST keep going...". Admittedly, they normally ignore this view, but come the exhibition..... 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Penlan Posted March 13, 2015 Share Posted March 13, 2015 Ooops, Thanks Mike, I thought it might be Dart, so have ordered one, just to make a change from horses and cows. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhyd-y-clafdy Posted March 20, 2015 Share Posted March 20, 2015 Hi You may be interested that my previous layout Rhyd-y-Clafdy has now retired from the exhibition circuit but is to be replaced before the end of the year by a 4mm model of Ellesmere. It will hopefully be at the Ellesmere exhibition in September. I haven't really used RMWeb before but if I can I will try to upload some pics when I can figure out how to do it. 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Donw Posted March 20, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 20, 2015 Hi You may be interested that my previous layout Rhyd-y-Clafdy has now retired from the exhibition circuit but is to be replaced before the end of the year by a 4mm model of Ellesmere. It will hopefully be at the Ellesmere exhibition in September. I haven't really used RMWeb before but if I can I will try to upload some pics when I can figure out how to do it. Sounds Interesting. I did spot this while walking along the canal Don 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MartinWales Posted March 22, 2015 Share Posted March 22, 2015 Hi Phil and welcome to RM Web Good to catch up with you and Ian at Stafford! BTW Is it really 2002 since you did Doncaster? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quarryscapes Posted April 17, 2015 Share Posted April 17, 2015 Hi You may be interested that my previous layout Rhyd-y-Clafdy has now retired from the exhibition circuit but is to be replaced before the end of the year by a 4mm model of Ellesmere. It will hopefully be at the Ellesmere exhibition in September. I haven't really used RMWeb before but if I can I will try to upload some pics when I can figure out how to do it. Remember seeing it at Porthmadog thinking I recognised the backscene from somewhere...took a while to sink in it's because I live in the real Rhydyclafdy! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brgmini Posted November 15, 2015 Share Posted November 15, 2015 Hi all . After a lot of inspiration gained from this site , mostly from the excellent Morfa . I've decided on a OO gauge Barmouth bridge layout . After having a few round and round layouts in the past , I've decided this will be a end to end with the scenic part of the layout measuring about 16' . Obviously this isn't long enough to make the whole length (modellers licence will be applied here) but I intend to make the 2 metal spans and as many of the wooden trestles as the space will allow . Finance and ability allowing I hope to post some pictures of my progress . 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold ChrisN Posted November 15, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted November 15, 2015 Hi all . After a lot of inspiration gained from this site , mostly from the excellent Morfa . I've decided on a OO gauge Barmouth bridge layout . After having a few round and round layouts in the past , I've decided this will be a end to end with the scenic part of the layout measuring about 16' . Obviously this isn't long enough to make the whole length (modellers licence will be applied here) but I intend to make the 2 metal spans and as many of the wooden trestles as the space will allow . Finance and ability allowing I hope to post some pictures of my progress . What a fabulous idea. What period will you be aiming at? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike morley Posted November 15, 2015 Share Posted November 15, 2015 A whopping sixteen feet to play with! This should be spectacular, to say the least! What do you intend to use as a scenic break at the Junction end? The wide-open-spaces nature of the place doesn't offer any obvious options. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brgmini Posted November 17, 2015 Share Posted November 17, 2015 What a fabulous idea. What period will you be aiming at?Thanks . I'll be running Blue and grey DMUs , sprinters , class 25s and class 37s. But really it will be 'my railway, my rules' 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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